[wenc]

It's not the Swiss; it's US credit cards.

Most Europeans either use a PIN or contactless (for smaller purchases). US credit cards however have no PIN, and contactless cards aren't yet common in the US, so terminals default to chip/magnetic-strip + signature. When a signature is required, one is supposed to check it against the signature on the card (I suspect we don't do it here in the US because everybody signs and it's too much of a hassle to do it for each transaction).

I've had my signature checked against the back of my card in many places around the world -- so it's not just Switzerland.

Most people abroad usually have this look of surprise when their terminal instructs them to obtain a signature. They usually have a face that says, "Oh! Americans".

p.s. this is changing with mobile contactless. I started using Apple Pay in Europe (before COVID that is). Most contactless terminals recognize my phone as simply another contactless card. (NFC)